


Clubhouse Sandwich

by wammysrunaways (fireandwhispers)



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Family Dynamics, Gen, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-06-30 01:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15741420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireandwhispers/pseuds/wammysrunaways
Summary: They'd had a good thing going, the two of them: Mello had a fierce, yet amiable competition going with Matt for First, winning more usually than not, with Third lagging a comfortable distance behind them.That is, until Near's tenth birthday came around and threw everything off balance.Written for the Matt/Mello Week on tumblr, for the prompt 'Found Family'.





	Clubhouse Sandwich

**Author's Note:**

> All the fics for this week are at least partially inspired by and named after a song; for this one it was 'Clubhouse Sandwich' by Yuumao. Unfortunately, it's in Japanese; I tried to translate as best as possible, but lyrics translations are always somewhat awkward, in my opinion. Nonetheless, it's a very heartwarming song!
> 
> _Tashika ni bokura wa koko ga daisuki de  
>  Egao de ietanda BYE BYE  
> Itsudemo kimi no mikata ni naritai to  
> Omoidasu toki ai wa soko ni  
> Kanarazu aru kara_
> 
> _\---_
> 
> _We've actually grown to love this place  
>  I was able to say goodbye with a smile  
> I always want to be by your side  
> Whenever you remember  
> You will always find love there_

"--should chill for once instead of studying, anyway, they won't be testing us on this until next Thursday."

"How would you know?" Mello asked with narrowed eyes.

Matt scratched the back of his neck. "...might've checked the schedule."

A beat. "Why are you still getting that Cryptology degree again?"

He rolled his eyes behind his goggles. "'cause if the whole world's security systems are as bad as Roger's, we're doomed."

A huff. "L's is better."

"According to you, L's  _everything_  is better." Matt wiggled his eyebrows as he knocked his shoulder into the other boy's, who blushed faintly.

Once he was sure he wouldn't stutter, Mello pushed his entire body into the other's, nearly sending Matt off the bed. "Shut it, Post Office. I know where all your controllers a--"

One tiny knock, followed by two rapid, equally soft ones, as if not quite sure they wanted to be heard or not, instantly shut them up.

They stared at each other for about three fourth's of a second before--

"Come in come in comeincomeinco--" The sound of the door opening was inaudible over the sharp shriek Matt uttered when his attempt to roll himself from his front to an upright position in one smooth movement ended up with him as a trampled burrito on the floor.

"Give me my sheets back, you arse, it's  _freezing_!"

" _Your_  sheets?" came a muffled voice from somewhere in the small mountain of fabric. "It's  _my_  room!"

"Technicalities--"

A delicate sound, somewhere between a cough and a mumbled word, cut them off once more.

Near was stood within the middle of the room, one hand firmly in his hair, the other clutching a sheet of paper, eyes flitting between the two.

Once Matt had succeeded in disentangling himself from his cotton python--"Gimme those."--and heaved himself back up onto the bed, shivering (despite having snatched the sheets back only seconds before, Mello rubbed his back and tucked them around the both of them) the pair stared back at Near, whose hair-twirling intensified.

"Well?" Mello's sharp voice rang out when the silence stretched on too long for his liking--about two and a half seconds--and Near cast his eyes down. He wordlessly held out the paper in their general direction; Matt, being the closest, nearly crumpled one side of it while Mello practically sat in his lap, nails almost tearing through the other side of the paper as they read the names and accompanying numbers. Only the first Five had access to the full data, so that meant that at the very least--

Near's breathing was shallow, and audible in the dead silence of the room. If either of them had looked up, they would have been able to see the faint hammering of his heart through the thin fabric of his shirt.

Mello swallowed. Matt's mouth opened, then closed. Mello swallowed again.

"First."

Matt's awed voice was punctuated by one of Mello's nails tearing a hole through the paper--right between where it said '3. Mello', followed by his average, then his list of classes and a trail of digits that detailed exactly how he ranked relative to the others, and '4. Liên'. While Matt was relieved to see that her average was still a good while off from Mello's, his mind was already going into overdrive.

Near flinched at the sound, his shoulders bunched up together. His knee bent slightly as if to sit, but he quickly thought better of it, locking them in place instead to stop them from shaking.

"I don't think anyone's burst into the rankings First since, well..." Matt trailed off, worrying his bottom lip and looking at Mello out of the corner of his eye. His friend had gone rigid against him. His elegant fingers were tracing the list, all the numbers--the  _entire_  list, not just the top three, where Matt's name was printed after '2.', his average just a few digits above Mello's.

He'd been so careful. Matt had  _always_  been careful, playing a cautious game of Second-Second-First-Second-First-Second-Second; and only since Mello had insisted on 'dragging his potential out of him'--which Matt only later realized really meant that Mello was lonely as all hell, resulting in hours of studying together and firing off pop quizzes at the most inopportune times ( _'I'm in the bloody shower, Mello, I don't give a shit about the electron configuration of silicon!')'_ before the blond figured out he didn't need the excuse of learning to be in Matt's company--but he hadn't calculated Near's upcoming birthday into the equation.

_Idiot._

He shouldn't play at Second-Third anymore either, from now on, just to be safe. Keep a steady Third, and occasionally let Liên get ahead of him before kicking her back down to Fourth--

"Congratulations."

It was barely audible, but more than enough to get Near to snap his head up with a speed that nearly gave Matt whiplash just looking at it.

A deep, calming breath, and then Mello raised his head, allowing the curtain of his hair to part and a wry smile to become visible. "Congratulations." His voice was far more steady this time around, the compliment sounding actually genuine, and Near looked so utterly lost, speechless for far too long a moment, Matt figured it was up to him to break the silence before Mello took offense.

He grinned broadly, and beckoned Near over, though the boy only took a few hesitant steps before stopping again. "Yeah, grats! We should sneak you some stuff in from the kitchens to celebrate, this is a big deal--"

"Let's not push it, now," Mello mumbled, side-eyeing him.

"It  _is_ , though! Remember that cake I got you when your birthday rolled around?"

"I still maintain you hacked into the Rankings to know I was going to end up First."

Matt muttered something non-committal. "Point being, entering the Rankings is a big deal, especially if you get First!"

Mello huffed, eyes widening and looking personally offended. "I got you the newest  _Tomb Raider_  just two months later, I saved up for that for  _weeks_!"

"Which I will treasure 'til the day I die," he said, holding a hand over his heart solemnly, and Mello seemed somewhat mollified--which was undone entirely by what he said next. "It still came out like  _nine weeks earlier,_  yet I didn't get it myself because I  _knew_  you were waiting to get me that--"

"Well  _Gee_ vas, guess I'll just break the disc then so you  _can_  buy your own copy. _"_

Matt looked alarmed for a brief moment, then affected a nonchalant shrug. "You don't know where it is, anyway."

"Behind one of the discs of my Ancient Egypt audiobook, top shelf." The redhead's jaw dropped at the prompt answer, his eyes flickering to said audiobook and turning his back to it, as if that would somehow protect it from Mello's wrath--but the blond just laughed. "That was actually just an educated guess.  _Really_ , Matt, that obvious? Where do you keep your porn, in fifteen subfolders called  _'totallyHomeworkISwear'_?"

"I'm scared."

The voice was barely audible, but it instantly shut them up. Mello and Matt turned as one to look at Near, whose gaze was deliberately avoiding them. "I pushed Liên out of the top Three. She already hated me." Near's fingers curled around his hair so tight Matt was legitimately afraid he'd pull it out. "I'm scared," he echoed the confession, voice so fragile the faintest wind could break it.

The change in Mello's expression was instantaneous at the sound. Matt didn't think he'd seen his face contorted with such righteous fury since The Great Hazing of '99. Shit, that had been a bad night. The expression on Near's face now wasn't too far off from the one he'd seen then, either.

"I'll kill her if she even  _thinks_  of touching you."

Matt was sincerely starting to worry Near's eyes might actually pop out of his head--but then, the honest-to-god  _growl_  Mello had just used had sent shivers down  _his_  spine, and Mello hadn't even been looking at him (although he was starting to suspect and desperately trying to ignore for as long as he possibly could the idea that Mello's  _everything_  had a slightly different effect on him than it did everyone else).

Near gingerly closed the last steps between them, eyes flickering from the page, to Mello's face, to Matt's, and back again. He opened his mouth, closed it again, seemingly unable to think of anything to say, but Mello spared him any further awkwardness.

"Watch your pale arse, Near," he said, reaching out and ruffling his hair. "Don't think it'll be that easy next time. In two weeks, it's gonna be me at One again."

Matt raised an eyebrow, leaning back on his elbows. "I'm still here, you know." He affected his voice and face to be thoroughly unimpressed, yet couldn't quite stop the half-grin from twitching onto his lips.

"Oh, yeah." Mello looked up, as if as an afterthought, mirroring his expression. "There you are."

He let out his second undignified yelp of the day--it wasn't even noon yet, dammit!--when Mello roughly pulled him in by the shirt and that sent a series of thoughts to his mind that definitely didn't belong there, but five seconds later found him in a loose choke-hold, and ten more haphazardly roughhousing, getting more tangled up in the sheets than anything else, and if Matt's face heated up a little more than it probably should that was only because he was about as active as a sloth and had definitely nothing to do with anything else, when a soft laugh broke them apart.

Near looked wide-eyed, as if unsure that sound had come from him. Yet Mello grinned, and tugged him into the mess of limbs and sheets with them, though far more gently than he had Matt.

The faintest smile lit up Near's entire face as he allowed himself to be pulled down, relief at the outcome of the situation turning his entire body to rubber, and Matt automatically returned it, his breathing gradually slowing as he laid down on Mello's chest and listened to his heart doing the same. Near didn't even tense when Matt's arm loosely draped over his shoulder, which only made his smile grow.

He felt a faint scratching at the back of his neck, and the turn of his lips turned lazy as he let out a yawn, a content murmur leaving him as Mello continued his petting, seeming to think nothing of it; and Matt's eyes soon drifted shut to the soothing sound of the soft  _thumps_  of that precious heart beneath him.

The three of them laid there, dozing under the winter sun that filtered through gaps in the curtain. They'd have a few more hours until the official rankings board got updated, and a stampede of their peers would come banging at their doors like hyenas snapping at the legs of a wounded gazelle, eager for any bite of information, any scoop, no matter how small.

But for now, the only rankings sheet lay half-ripped and crumbled on the floor next to the sleeping boys, forgotten.

 

* * *

 

It was no coincidence that L had made sure to be present at Wammy's House for the first updated Rankings after Mello, Matt, and now Near's tenth birthdays. He had recognized their potential from the moment he first laid eyes on them, nurtured their individual strengths himself as much as possible; instructed Roger to give them whatever they requested for their studies when not, and thus wanted to be there in person the moment each of them were officially allowed to enter the Rankings.

He wasn't surprised that Near had shot straight to First. Despite the boy having shared his wariness with him about Mello's potential reaction, he would never dream of delivering anything but his best, would find the mere concept of doing so an insult to his friend. Perhaps L's reassurance that Mello would take it as a challenge to push himself harder, to be able to compete with someone other than Matt, had helped as well, even though his words had prompted little more than skepticism born from fear at the time.

Yet he must have taken them to heart after all--either that, or his pride allowed him nothing else.

Perhaps a little of both.

He couldn't deny a rare fondness for the three--no, L did not lie to himself. It had spread beyond mere fondness by now. It was likely because they had spent a disproportionate amount of time together, the only person he had spent more time with over the years Watari himself--and, before things had gone so horrifically wrong, A and B. Combined with the fact that he saw undeniable similarities in the boys to himself...

Mello was his harsher tactics, his willingness to do whatever it took to solve a case; his determination, his confusing opponents with baffling moves that turned into a blur that made sense only to he, himself until--checkmate.

Near was him at his most analytical. Combing through every piece of evidence in perfect calm, unraveling the threads of the mystery until he had a single line leading straight from the puzzle to the solution.

Matt... reminded him of himself at his most dangerous. His own worst enemy. He could see the potential for deadly ennui, those rare moments the boy was around neither Mello nor Near; particularly the former seeming to bring out his best (or, if you asked Roger, most troublesome) qualities. L couldn't help but feel faintly wistful whenever he looked at the two of them together. They had been inseparable ever since they met; Mello bringing out the passion in Matt, and he in return often being the only one who could ground the blond when he was stuck in one of his episodes. They were a splendid match.

Then Near, despite his selective mutism for almost his entire first year at the House, managed to insert himself alongside them--perhaps it was Mello's intrinsic instinct to protect those weaker than him, a quality he would vehemently deny if ever pointed out; perhaps it was simply their shared intellect that drew them together--yet somehow three did not make a crowd.

On the contrary, they were perfectly complementary. Mello was the drive, the fire that occasionally burned too hot; Near the cold analysis, sometimes overly hesitant; and Matt the link, the stabiliser that would fuse the three of them together into something that would eventually eclipse even L himself.

That was, if his intuition regarding Mello had been correct.

Though he preferred to rely on cold, hard facts, he had learned over the years that his intuition was rarely mistaken. Yet, when he at last stood in front of the door to Mello's bedroom--after having found both Near's and Matt's empty--he steeled himself.

L opened the door, barely one centimeter per second at a time, the well-oiled hinges and handle not making a single sound--not Roger's work, he knew, but Mello's own, so he was free to roam the halls at night and make the occasional late-night trip outside of the House. It was a small piece of freedom L didn't want to take away from him; he knew how restless the boy could get. If an episodic nightly trip with Near and Matt--usually only Matt, the younger boy preferring to stay within the safety of the confines of the House--kept him that bit more grounded, he would not deny him that.

The first thing that came in sight was a printed paper showing the Rankings--crumpled, and with a clear finger-shaped hole torn through. Utter silence rang throughout the room, and his stomach sank. Yet as he opened it further, he found half of the bed's blankets covering the floor, and he finally dared to peek around the corner to a sight that made his breath hitch.

Mello was lying splayed out in the middle of the bed--of course--with Matt burrowing his face in the crook of his neck against the sun, the both of them having their legs tangled up in what little remained of the mess of blankets not on the floor. Near lay on Mello's arm, his legs pulled up slightly to his body, his ankles resting on Matt's lower thigh.

Now he was properly in the room, he could hear it wasn't silent at all, but filled with a continuous chorus of their soft breathing.

L felt conflicted at the sight, his throat suddenly feeling quite dry. He preferred to stay away from people, as a general rule. They did not have the intellect to follow the most basic of his trains of thought, and while he did not hold this against them--it was simply an unfortunate consequence of how they had developed in the womb (sometimes, when he was alone in some skyscraper, staring out a dark window at his own reflection and felt the impulsive urge to break his fist on the glass, L wondered if  _he_  was not the unfortunate one). Wammy's House was tolerable. Only the best were flown here, and even if there was a large age gap, he could look at any of them and  _see_.

The sharpness in their eyes. The way their brains were wired differently, how their thought patterns functioned on another level entirely.

And yet, these three... Near. Mello. Matt. Another separate category--for more reason than one, he now realized.

They had made their way into his heart without his even realizing.

Mello had barged in with a strength that had the door bang against the wall, no excuses; fire in his eyes and a blazing smile that had been a world of contrast to the looks he'd gotten before Mello had realized that the man who had tracked him down and rescued him off the streets was  _also_  the great L.

Near had slipped in as he did in most places, observant and without any fanfare. But his questions--written at first, gradually transitioning to speech--were piercing, and his respect and thirst for knowledge clear.

Matt hadn't cared about him for the longest time--or so L had thought. Sometimes the boy was better at hiding his emotions than Near was. It wasn't until one night, when Matt had knocked at his office-slash-bedroom, stared at his feet as he shuffled them across the carpet and explained that he, Mello and Near were playing  _Mario Kart_ , and they really needed a fourth player because otherwise things just weren't even, you know, and Linda had already gone to bed and Mello and Near would probably really like it if--

L remembered having opened a five-second connection to Watari, told him to 'handle things', 'things' being the case he had going in Mexico, and shut his laptop with a snap.

He had treasured that evening, to his surprise, Mello openly delighted and giving his friend a broad grin (he swore he'd heard him whisper _'You actually did it!'_ ), with even Near giving a shy smile, hair a-twirl; and more so when slowly, like nocturnal animals coming out of their nests, many in pajamas, students had started to crowd around them. _'L plays video games!'_   had been murmured more than once and he was certain Matt's reputation got a significant boost that night--especially when he ended up beating all three of them in the tournament, and a soft, uncertain applause descended on them, as if they weren't quite sure they were allowed to celebrate L's defeat. In a frustrated impulse L had reached out and ruffled Matt's hair, who had yelped in surprise, and congratulated him with a quirk of his lips, and Matt had given a relieved laugh, which had soon spread to the other students, whose clapping became a lot more earnest (though Matt had, at the time, been busy fending off a blond that had narrowly come second place, and thus probably couldn't enjoy the full extent of his victory).

He watched as the redhead subconsciously scooted closer to Mello, making Near rearrange the placement of pale feet over the mess of blankets; Mello humming low in his throat at the movement and pulling both of them in before his head succumbed to gravity and his forehead knocked lightly against Matt's, though neither boy awoke.

The corners of L's mouth quirked upwards almost imperceptibly, and he closed the door as gently as he had opened it. They had earned a few more hours of sleep.

L had found his successors--but perhaps in his search for them, Wammy's House had finally given him something far more valuable.

**Author's Note:**

> I am not responsible for any dentist visits required after the consummation of this fic.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Should you be interested in Death Note spam, my tumblr is the same as this one.


End file.
